It's My Nature » Digital Art

Coneflower Meets Macro

Ed — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:48:16 +0000

The ebb and flow of our photographic lives always seems to have us moving from subject to subject, from technique to technique, from favorite lens to favorite lens as time moves incessantly forward. The past couple of years (prior to this one) I tended to do a lot more macro and flower photography. This year not so much as my attention has turned more to landscapes and sunrises and such.

I found myself at home today, not really feeling well but getting bored of sleeping the day away. So I one point I grabbed my Canon 30D, put on a Sigma 70 mm macro lens and ventured out into the backyard for a little while. Nothing fancy. No tripod. Just the camera, the backyard and me. In the back corner (of a small backyard) behind the (very small) made-made pond, in amongst the native shrubs and wildflowers was a small stand of purple coneflowers that looked like they could be fun to work with.

So I did. All images were shot handheld at f/2.8. I shot wide open because I was really looking to create some soft images with very soft backgrounds. For the third image, I purposefully took the entire image out-of-focus in-camera in order to create an entirely soft image. Images of that type aren’t to everyone’s liking but hey, I like it and that’s what counts!

“Coneflower #1″

“Coneflower #2″

“Coneflower #3 – Perchance to Dream”

An Inside Look into the Life of a Nature Photographer: The Weekend in Review – Day 1, Saturday

Ed — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:46:09 +0000

I was contemplating what, from this weekend, I wanted to add to my blog. After thinking about it a while, I concluded why not take you through the entire weekend. So let’s start at the beginning, Saturday morning.

Saturday more was a “late” start for us. We were up at 0530 and out of the house at 0630 headed for Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve. If you love wildflowers (and I do), Bowman’s Hill, just south of New Hope, PA is wonderful place to be. And this time of year, it is doubly good because they also have early morning bird walks on Saturday mornings. So my wife heads out on the guided bird walk (she has seen life birds her last two walks) and I wander about looking for wildflowers that just somehow speak to me. It funny (and a bit painful) but I always lug around my entire backpack arsenal of camera bodies, lenses, filters, teleconverters, extension tubes, etc. etc. And I always seem to use just a single camera body (this time the 50D), a single lens (my Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro because to me wildflowers tend to beg for close-ups) and, of course, my tripod. And so it was on this day. As I said, I tend to look around for those special flowers as opposed to opening fire and shooting everything in sight. The entire morning, I only photographed five flowers. This Virginia Spiderwort image is an example of what I came away with on Saturday morning.

We stopped for breakfast/lunch at a favorite little roadside cafe and were home for the afternoon during which I processed images from the morning shoot. After dinner, we decided to head out for a ride. Barb always takes her binoculars and I have to take along at least a camera and lens. And that’s what I did. After dragging along the 30+ pounds of camera gear in the morning, I went out with just the 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. Heck, I didn’t even know where we were going at this point. And the 24-70 is my basic walkabout lens. We ended up at a small county park along the Delaware River just south of Easton, PA called Wy-Hit-Tuk (don’t ask; I have no idea what it means). We walked through the park and along the Delaware Canal towpath where I came across these stands of bright yellow flowers. I’m not even sure what they are but as soon as I saw them I knew I had to create an impressionistic abstract of them. The key to making any type of blur abstract is to lengthen the shutter speed so that you have time to move the camera. Sometimes that movement is a vertical pan, sometimes it is a horizontal swipe and sometimes it is just a slight little bounce or jiggle that creates the blur. I dropped the ISO to 100 because that will lengthen the shutter speed. I happened to be in AV mode so I stopped down to around f/18 which in combination with the ISO 100 gave me a shutter speed of 0.8 seconds and I was ready to shoot. (Note, it just just as easy, probably easier, to switch to TV mode and set the exposure of 0.8 sec and let the camera select aperture.) Then I started to shoot – handholding the camera and introducing slight little movements to get the effect I wanted. What effect? A Monet-like photo-impressionistic effect.

Upon returning home, I surveyed the images made (maybe a dozen), selected the few that I liked and processed them. And thus ended Saturday, Day 1 of the three-day Memorial Day weekend. Stay tuned for Day 2 (Delaware Water Gap) and Day 3 (Back to Nockamixon) coming to you tomorrow and Wednesday.

A Different View of Sunrise

Ed — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:36:40 +0000

Yesterday I was up at 0400 and out of the house by 0420 in search of a sunrise to shoot. When looking for as close to sure thing as I can find, I always seem to return to the marina at Lake Nockamixon (Nockamixon State Park, Bucks County, PA). And yesterday was no exception. I think I mentioned that I will be hanging a small exhibit in a local bistro in June. It looks like it will be 10-12 images and I’ve adopted the working theme “Sunrises & Sunsets from Your Own Backyard”. All images were made within one hour of home and the bistro. Anyway, as I looked over my images I realized that I could use one or two more vertical (portrait) images to best fill the space available. So my goal yesterday was to make a few more verts to choose from.

What I relearned the hard way is that vertical sunrises are not necessarily easy to shoot unless you have a really full sky or something to hold the foreground. I had neither yesterday. The sky, while brilliantly colored at the horizon, ended fairly quickly as we moved up. And the foreground was just a lot of water. And this even if I zoomed in with my 70-200 mm lens. In hindsight, I would have been better off staying in the marina per se where I could have used sailboats to hold the foreground. Oh well!

So I made some verts and I made some horizontal (landscape) images and then decided to take the camera off the tripod and go for some blur abstracts using a horizontal pan/blur/sweep/swipe (whatever you want to call it). I came up with two images that I really like (and I may include one or both in the exhibit to change things up a bit). The images were made maybe 10 minutes apart and “focusing” on slightly different parts of the sky. So without further ado here is a different (blur abstract) view of sunrise.

“Pre-Sunrise Abstract #1″

“Pre-Sunrise Abstract #2″

Hope you enjoy this different view of sunrise.

Reflections on Acadia

Ed — Mon, 24 May 2010 01:20:50 +0000

It was a tough weekend. Between some lousy weather and other commitments, I didn’t get a single image made this weekend. So today I started to look forward to our October 2010 trip to Acadia National Park (ME) and reflect back on our last visit in June 2009. I looked through some of my images from last year and thought “Hey, I can do better than that!” So I took some time this afternoon and reprocessed several of my favorite images using the new tools (particularly Nik Complete) that I did not have a year ago. Here are three of my reworked images.

The first is “Tranquility” and is the view from one of our favorite spots in Acadia – the rocks of Otter Cliffs looking toward Sand Beach. So peaceful. So tranquil. I so much wish I was there right now.

The second image is one I’ve entitled “Melancholy Morning” and is actually the view looking back toward Otter Cliffs from the Cobble Beach.

And the third image is one I’ve simply entitled “Home”. It is the village of Bar Harbor and the mountains of Acadia as seen at sunrise from Bar Island. Over the past 10 years, Bar Harbor has become our home away from home.

Riverblur

Ed — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:10:35 +0000

This series, well it’s only two images, is from an evening walk along the Delaware Canal towpath (Delaware Canal State Park, PA) which, for much of its length, runs along a narrow spit of land between the canal and the Delaware River. I have often joked that it is a state park that is nearly 60 miles long and about 10 feet wide. It is also a state park that was absolutely devastated by two 100-year floods several years back when two hurricanes (Ivan and another) flooded the river and destroyed much of the towpath. Slowly, it is being rebuilt.

The images are obviously both blurs. The first is the result of a horizontal blur with a 0.6 sec exposure. The second is the result of a vertical blur also with a 0.6 sec exposure. Both were made with my Canon 50D and 24-70 2.8L lens.

“Riverblur 1.0″

“Riverblur 2.0″

Hope you enjoy! While I enjoy creating all types of nature images (see the sunrises, sunsets, flowers, water images and others below and in my website galleries); these blurs and other images like them say more about me as an artist that almost any other type of image I create.

Longwood Gardens Hibiscus

Ed — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:45:19 +0000

I spent most of the day Monday photographing with an out-of-state, online friend inside the conservatory (it was pouring outside) at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Having been there several times already this year, I decided to challenge myself by only bringing a single lens – the Lensbaby. (I hear some groans out there. :-) ) I did provide myself with some leeway by including the Lensbaby Macro Kit, Soft Focus Optic and Fisheye Optic. So I did have some choices to make. I am pleased to say that I used all three and by the time the day was done, I felt much more comfortable with the Lensbaby. As I said elsewhere, I felt I had become one with the lens.

The Hibiscus images below were made using my Canon 5D Mark II and the Lensbaby Composer with the Soft Focus Optic and the +4 Macro filter/lens. Hope you enjoy them.

The first is a beautiful red/purple Hibiscus but I forgot to jot down the name.

I call this second image “The Age of Aquarius” since the Hibiscus is named Fifth Dimension.

“4 2″ (A or B)

Ed — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:35:22 +0000

How’s that for cryptic title. “4 2″ is what I have entitled this image for what is a hopefully obvious reason. The “A or B” is because I will show two versions of the same image and would like to know which you prefer.

Here’s the story. I made this image yesterday morning shortly after sunrise at the marina on Lake Nockamixon (Nockamixon State Park, Bucks County, PA). When I processed the image using Nik Viveza 2, Nik Color Efex Pro and finally Topaz Simplify, I ended up with an image that I really liked… one that seemed to me to capture the spirit, essence, feeling of very early morning in the marina. I also knew, looking at the image, that the bluish cast would trouble some folks. But I decided to go with it. Sure enough, first comment I got was could I whiten the whites particularly on the hulls of the boats. Well the answer is yes I can but I didn’t because it didn’t fit my vision of very early morning light and shadows.

But I figured what the heck… let’s give it a whirl. So I went into the image and whitened the whites using the white neutralizer filter in Nik Color Efex Pro. To my eye the result is not bad at all. I kinda like it myself. But it strikes me as now placing the image later in the morning under a higher, brighter, warmer sun… a nice image but not in keeping with my personal vision.

All that said, I am still wondering which image has broader appeal to a viewer not wrapped up in my personal vision. THAT WOULD BE YOU!!! Please let me know which of the two you honestly prefer and if moved to do so, why. I would really appreciate the feedback.

Thanks.

IMAGE A

IMAGE B

Marina Sunrise

Ed — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:52:35 +0000

We returned to Lake Nockamixon in Nockamixon State Park (Bucks County, PA) this morning in hopes of capturing another great sunrise. There wasn’t much structure (clouds) in the sky to add interest and color to the composition so I decided to pull in some of the boats moored in the slips at the marina. I think that helped a lot.

Once again, I decided to create 5-image HDR composites in order to pull more detail out of the early morning shadows. While I normally process my HDR images conservatively so they don’t look like HDR, I decided to turn it loose this time and push the HDR processing limits much more than I normally do.

I am reading an excellent book by David duChemin titled “Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision“. In it duChemin points out that every image is really made up of three images: there is what we see; there is what the camera captures; and there is what we ultimately produce with our post-processing. All three impact the final image as it reproduces what we see. I think I would add a fourth image or at least a “1A” to the “1B” of “what we see”. I think there are two kinds of “sight” that occur before the camera is activated. Certainly there is what we see with our eyes. But even before that, there is what we see with our mind’s eye… what is previsualized, if you will.

As I drove to the lake this morning, I was scanning the sky. I saw the lack of clouds with my eyes. And then in my mind’s eye, I saw the marina, the boats, the water and the sun rising above the horizon. But to take it one step further, I also saw the processing that it would take to create the look that I wanted. In other words, in my minds eye I knew what I would see, I knew what the camera would capture and I knew what I would do to get the final product that I wanted.

If you’re interested in reading the details of how I ultimately created these images, I will be providing it on my “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!” blog (http://itsmynature.wordpress.com). I will probably add that post tomorrow evening around this same time. Join me then and follow the journey from beginning to end.

This first image was taken about 10 minutes before actual sunrise.

And this second image was made just as the sun started to peak above the horizon. If you look carefully into the sky you will see at least two other places that look like the rising sun but aren’t. Trust me. The true rising sun is just peaking over the horizon here.

Hope you enjoy the images.

Pushing the Envelope

Ed — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:05:09 +0000

As many of you already know, almost every time I wander out with my camera I end up tacking on (which isn’t really the right word since it makes it sound like an afterthought and it isn’t; it’s pre-planned) some shots that are meant to push the boundaries of my photography. In fact as I pointed out in my artist statement, it is where I see my photography going and where I feel most creative and comfortable. I love doing flowers and birds and landscapes but I have the most fun doing abstracts.

Anyway, we were at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve back on Saturday. It was a lovely day albeit a bit cool and plenty windy. Dealing with the wind was quite the challenge and after a bit I decided to follow my own advice and “become one with the wind”. I decided to slow the shutter speed and allow the wind to create a natural blur to the images. Then I decided go beyond letting the wind take me where it wanted. I started working on some more unusual blurs.

The first image is the result of a “zoom blur”. I slowed the shutter speed (through the use of a Vari-ND filter) to 1-sec and with my 70-200 lens zoomed from 70mm to 200mm during the period the shutter was open. Just a little note here. If you compose at the widest focal length (70mm here) and zoom in (to 200mm), you have total control over what is in your frame. If you do the reverse and start tight (200mm) and zoom out to 70mm, you can end up with extraneous stuff in the frame that you really didn’t want and didn’t consider starting with the tighter composition. Just a tip.

The second image is the result of a “radial blur”, sometimes referred to as a “twist blur”. I used the same set up as above – Canon 5D Mark II; 70-200 2.8L IS; Vari_ND and tripod. I also used loner exposures of around 1-sec. The key here is to loosen the tripod collar on the lens so that you can freely rotate the camera. How far you rotate can vary and will give different effects based on degree of rotation and speed of rotation. I find that I tend to prefer a little detail in my blurs and have found that I like about 90 degrees in one second. Here’s an example.

Covered Bridges – Inside and Out!

Ed — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:44:39 +0000

This past weekend I had the pleasure of shooting with a group of my Facebook friends who had come into the Lehigh Valley in search of covered bridges. While the bridges were new fodder for my out-of-town friends, I had photographed them several times in the past. This was particularly true of the first bridge on the tour, Bogart’s Bridge in the Lehigh Parkway (Allentown, PA). This bridge is within walking distance of my office and, as a consequence, I have shot there often. So my task was to look for different, more unusual perspectives to photograph the bridge.

Let’s begin with the the outside. I felt that I wanted the bridge to be a more “incidental” feature in my composition rather than the main focus. I wanted the stream to provide equal weight and I wanted to be sure to also capture the log cabin across the way. I decided the way to accomplish all this was to set up along side the bridge… but rather than try to describe, let’s look at the picture – a 5-image HDR composite.

I continued to work the bridge looking for other unusual compositions and came up with this one from inside the bridge showing the actual support structure in much more detail. Because of the deep shadows and bright light streaming through the openings, this was another prime candidate for HDR.

I always enjoy looking for the unusual, if not unique, composition and having the opportunity to make the ordinary extraordinary!

ADDENDUM ONE: Speaking of “making the ordinary extraordinary!”, that is the name of my new, second blog. It is not a replacement for this blog but rather a supplement to it. You can read more about “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!” in the right-hand column where you will also find a link to the new blog. Check it out if you would and let me know what you think?

ADDENDUM TWO: Speaking of the right-hand column where I added the note about the new blog, you will note that the links are gone. I seem to have deleted them in the process of trying to add the link to my blog and the description of it. I tend to be dangerous that way. All is not lost since I have them backed up in my bookmarks in Safari. So I can still find and visit your fine blogs. And somewhere down the line, I will try to add links back in.